Strathcarron’s Hospice at Home service has been awarded the highest rating of “Grade 6” and “Excellent” (the highest grading awarded for leadership and supporting people’s wellbeing), across all evaluation parameters inspected by the Care Inspectorate.

The Hospice at Home service is fully funded by the local community, and provides specialist palliative and end of life care in the community, which is free of charge for people in Forth Valley and North Lanarkshire.

The specialist service was initially fully funded by The Big Lottery Fund for 5 years, until the end of July 2019; since then, the service has been funded entirely by donations from the communities served by the Hospice. The Hospice at Home team currently supports nearly 400 local people and their families each year.

Irene McKie, Chief Executive, Strathcarron Hospice says:

“We’re delighted to have been awarded the “full set of 6s”, the highest grading by the Care Inspectorate. This is the fifth consecutive Care Inspectorate report that has graded us as excellent. As a charity, the NHS only fund 1/3 of our Hospice services, but this doesn’t include Hospice at Home at all.

“[That] the local community walk, run, cycle, jump, bake and go to many other amazing efforts to keep what the Care Inspectorate called an “excellent, sector leading” service is remarkable. If it wasn’t for local supporters and fundraisers, Hospice at Home just couldn’t keep going.

“The report highlighted that our Hospice at Home team spoke of “feeling privileged” to be able to support people to die with dignity and respect at home, as is their wish. This is testament to the compassion and professionalism of our skilled team. They build meaningful relationships – at the worst times in the lives – of the people and their loved ones that they’re caring for.”

Each person supported by Strathcarron Hospice at Home service has their needs centred at the heart of these conversations, in recognition of the physical and emotional complexities of palliative and end of life care. The service’s nursing and health care assistant teams listen, care and respect people’s physical, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual needs. This holistic approach is designed to allow people to have choices, and positive perspectives to live the best quality of life possible, respecting their wishes and enabling them to die at home.

The Care Inspectorate report said:

“Strathcarron Hospice at Home were sector leading and supported experiences for people which were of outstanding high quality. People were respected and listened to because their wishes and preferences were used to shape how they were supported.

“Staff demonstrate the principles of the Health and Social Care Standards in their day-to-day-practice, and families of people they had supported at the end of their life had nothing but praise for the service. Staff recognised changing health needs and shared this information quickly with the right people.”

Strathcarron Hospice has to raise £14,632 daily to provide the specialist end of life care and services to individuals and their families across its communities.

Hospice at Home costs £474,000 per annum and saves an average of 6 beds days per patient. The cost to care for a Hospice at Home patient (based on an average 6 days) is £1,437. This costs breaks down to £239 per patient, per day.

The Care Inspectorate report is available to download in full from their website.

For further information on Hospice at Home, or any of Strathcarron’s other services, please visit the Strathcarron Hospice website.